The GR-1 was intended to be the successor to the 05 GT and used a modified version of its platform.    https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/shelby-gr-1-the-ford-gt-sequel-that-never-was/

Just look at the sales numbers of the Escort back in the 1980s as proof of this-it was the smallest car Ford made/sold in North America in the 1980s (outside of the Fiesta and Festiva at the start and end of the 1980s) and they sold around 400K of them a year-mostly to offset CAFE of larger vehicles.    

Tesla operates two vehicle assembly plants in North America: Fremont Factory in California: 5.5 million square feet; produces Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y (mainly for Western U.S.) Texas Gigafactory: 10 million square feet; produces Cybertruck and Model Y (mainly for Eastern U.S.) There is also a factory proposed for Mexico, but construction of that plant is on hold currently. 

It’s interesting to see the development of compact cars like Focus over the years against something like say the Pontiac GTO that was based on a Holden Commodore the Focus sedan was around 183” long and 71.9” wide the GTO coupe was around 189.8” long and 72.5” wide   I find this an interesting development and shows how a well designed FWD/AWD  design can replace a car that was considered large in markets outside of the US.   and yes, I readily agree it an unequal comparison but it does show how good design can change buyers minds and expectations. I guess that also touches on why Compact Utility is now such a popular segment.

Cuautitlan's capacity is greater than its current production; they're running a single shift. The program was built for 25 jph; a few years ago a capacity increase action was implement to boost that to, if I remember correctly, 35. Adding another shift or running 3-crew would boost things without any type of CAPEX investment at all.   BEV and ICE could probably be mixed at CSAP. There'd be cost, and it's not as simple as my saying "probably," but the body is not sufficiently different than and ICE body. Paint is Paint. Final assembly still loads what we call a chassis these days; it's just a battery pack under the floor instead of an engine/tranny up front (oversimplified, of course).   On the other hand, future architectures probably can't mix ICE and BEV production in the same plant, especially if they're low-cost architectures replacing production in LAP. That's as close as I'm going into NDA territory.  

Yea, exactly. Over at Honda, the Acura brand is discontinuing TLX because: buyers who choose an Acura car prefer spending $10k less for a similarly spec'd Integra buyers who choose an Acura at the TLX price point of $45k - $58k prefer an SUV like RDX and MDX (or Integra Type S) Acura will cease production of the TLX sedan later this month as Honda's luxury division continues its path away from sedans and towards SUVs. The departure of the TLX from the lineup will leave the Integra hatchback as the only non-SUV in showrooms, as the larger RLX sedan was discontinued in 2020, and the NSX supercar ended production in 2022.

What buyers want to buy and what can be sold profitably are two different things.   I could sell a billion hot dogs per year if I sold them for a quarter but I’d be broke.

American Buyers only buy small cars like fiesta because they’re cheap.  And so you’re competing on price with things like Nissan Versa.  There just isn’t much if any profit to be had so when companies need to divert resources to develop BEVs that’s the first thing to go.

CAFE certainly hasn't helped small car sales.  But it's not the only reason small car sales dwindled.

Ok, so use Focus then.  My point is, automakers would find a way if buyers demanded it.   Instead, buyers have moved up in size as automakers have made vehicles larger.  While CAFE may make it easier for automakers to sell larger vehicles, if buyers were adamant about sticking with smaller vehicles, sales of the growing models would shrink as they upsized, which didn't happen.